My husband’s father raised Bantam chickens. Show chickens. Beautiful little birds. My family had chickens when I was little. Until a weasel killed them all in one night. Mom & I sat in the yard & cried over their little mangled bodies.
We’ve had chickens since 2008.
Chickens are just part of the homestead. A soothing background noise that means I’m home. I really love to hear my rooster crowing. And he’s a beauty. His name is Billy Rae.
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I started my flock with Rhode Island Reds. I like this breed. They’re good mama’s. They lay well. They’re fairly smart & sassy. When I think of a Rhode Island Red, I think of the Little Red Hen children’s story. My ladies stay around the “barn” area. They love scratching around.
They really like pears.
I got 12 day-old chicks from Tractor Supply in Batesville last August.
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We now have a Tractor Supply Co. in Ash Flat, even handier. I love chicks!
I also have 2 Black Copper Maran hens.
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Several years ago, I transitioned by flock from Rhode Island Red to the Black Copper Maran. I’d read about that breed in an online chicken group on Facebook. So I thought I’d try them.
They were great mama’s. In fact, my hen Jett even raised guinea chicks for me. She’d cuddle up and raise just about anything. I was sad when she passed away one cold day, at the ripe old age of 6. That’s old for a hen.
We don’t eat our chickens. We do eat eggs! Lots of eggs! I don’t wash my eggs to store them in the kitchen. I just rub off the dirt and store them in my egg skelter.
![](https://hallmarktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Pennys-Egg-Skelter-768x1024.jpg)
That dirty egg was buried in mud outside the pen one afternoon. I cleaned it as best I could & used it the next day.
Several things to know about chickens. First, they aren’t stupid. My birds aren’t like those poor souls who live their lives in a cage – eating & laying eggs until they die – a horrible life for a living creature.
I don’t clip my bird’s wings. They have wings so they can fly away from danger. That’s their nature. To fly.
I keep my birds in an enclosure, originally a dog kennel. We put a roof on it, added a few boxes on the ground & on the side of the enclosure. Added a bunch of branches for roosts. Wa la.
Chicken pen.
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I put wood chips down in the fall, so the birds feet aren’t in contact with the ground during the winter. I also put plastic over the chain-link fence. Mostly to block the wind & keep some heat in. I put a light in when the temperature is going to be below freezing during the day. I use a red light. I don’t want to force my hens to lay during the winter. Again, that’s their nature. Why force things?
Here’s a graphic I found on chickens. I found it interesting.
![](https://hallmarktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/chicken-tips.jpg)
I bet you didn’t know that chickens have a vocabulary! They surely do!
Another fact about chickens – they molt twice a year. They don’t lay while they are molting. And they can look pretty sad & malnourished while growing their feathers back.
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Here’s poor Mahogany, looking the worse for wear!
We keep our birds in their enclosure most of the time. We’re the only house on over 1200 acres (only 42 are our’s) & everything critter in the woods loves to eat chicken. We lose eggs to snakes on occasion. We’ve even lost Bantam hens & chicks to snakes. But the opossums & raccoons eat the birds any chance they get. I hate coming out to feed them & find a headless body lying inside along the fence!
I feed my birds layer crumbles from Hirsch’s Feed. I supplement their feed with pelletized oyster shells. Making eggs takes a lot of calcium. The egg shells will become very thin if the birds don’t have enough calcium in their diet.
I collect rain water & fill the watering cans each morning. That’s when I let the birds out. I collect the eggs, fill the hanging feeder & fill the water. Then I walk the dog. When we come back from our walk, the birds have usually decided that the food I just put out is more important than eating grass & returned to the enclosure. I close & lock the door. That’s it. That’s all the care they need.